Chinese soldiers guard the Xinjiang Grand Bazaar in July.

From 2007 to 2008, Kinsey Wright taught English in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang region. She writes about her experience watching coverage of early July’s Uighur civil unrest while in north India with exiled Tibetans.

“Ssshhh,” he whispered. “We mustn’t speak of those things here! Someone might understand English!”

‘Here’ was Urumqi, the provincial capital of China’s far northwestern Uighur Autonomous Area.

For me, an American, there was little risk in discussing Uighur nationalism, financial domination by Han Chinese or China’s harsh treatment of Islam. But if the wrong person overheard us, it could cost my Uighur friends everything. Some things in Urumqi are just not spoken about in public.

One of many areas that refute the Western misconception of a homogeneous China, the Uighur Autonomous Area (Xinjiang in Chinese) is populated with myriad cultures, religions, and a ‘dissident’ movement.

One of my most passionate issues is human rights in China, specifically violations related to the Uighur minority. I religiously follow everything that happens with the Uighurs, since I was intimately connected to them when I lived in Urumqi for nearly a year.

I cannot count the number of times I was silenced in public areas or confided in with secrets that people from both sides just needed to get off their chest. Once, a Han Chinese high school student who wanted to do Uighur studies at Xinjiang University told me how he was fearful about what his parents would say. Another time, half-Uighur, half-Han sisters recounted how they were unable to tell anyone in their group of friends about their mixed heritage for fear of being ostracized.

But I am also not so near-sighted as to believe that Uighurs are the only people having a hard time. There are the Tibetans, as well as the Mongolians, Hui and other groups who voice disagreeable opinions.

Tibetan exiles in McLeod Ganj, India

Early this summer I traveled in McLeod Ganj, India, home to the Dalai Lama. I was lucky enough to be present for the Tibetan spiritual leader’s birthday celebrations. When the Urumqi riots broke out in early July, I was en route to watching a documentary on the Dalai Lama’s life. I was extremely disturbed when I realized that much of the Urumqi unrest happened very close to where I had lived. Some of the rioting was right outside the building where I taught English.

Before the showing of the film, my sister and I were loudly discussing the riots. While I noticed that people were interested in our conversation, nobody interjected. They couldn’t focus on anything other than their own Tibetan cause. After suffering through the film for 25 minutes, I finally burst into tears. I needed to email friends still in Urumqi to see if they were alive.

On one level, I considered myself fortunate to be surrounded by another group of oppressed people from China. I assumed that the Tibetans would be outraged and ready to speak out about the Uighur situation — on account of having their own similar experiences. But the Tibetans didn’t show much sympathy for the Uighurs who were beaten and killed by the Chinese authorities. In fact, none of the Tibetans or the foreigners in McLeod Ganj had much to say about anything other than the Tibetan cause.

I approached a group of three Tibetan monks in a restaurant where my sister was having lunch. I first spoke to them in English, and when they didn’t understand, I switched to Chinese.

The monks had no idea what was happening in Urumqi. They weren’t even sure where Urumqi was. When I gave them a brief overview, the monks replied, “Oh yes, we know about their struggle, but that is different. They are Muslim. It is a religious issue.”

When I inquired further and compared the two groups situations, the monks politely replied, “The issues are different. Working together would do no good. We are happy living here in India.”

I left the restaurant and walked into one of many Tibetan shops. The shopkeeper spoke English, and when I asked him about the riots, he said he had gone and prayed for the people of Urumqi that morning. This comment sparked a feeling of hope.

When I asked whether he had been discussing the issues with his fellow Tibetans, he replied, “No, it doesn’t really affect us here. It is a different issue with the Uighurs. I always go and pray when I hear about riots erupting that end in death. I did the same for Iran.”

The majority of Tibetans I spoke with simply did not know about the Uighur unrest. Even those who knew didn’t seem to think that it affected them. They certainly didn’t see the situation as an opportunity for the two groups to work together. In one Tibetan’s words, “The issues are different. It doesn’t do either of us any good to work together. It is more complicated than that.”

After returning to the United States and reconnecting with some Uighur friends here, they showed me some photos from protests held in the States. And in the background of several of the photos, across the street from the main action, was a small group of Tibetans vigorously waving Tibetan flags.

- Kinsey Wright

Photos courtesy of Flickr users Remko Tanis and Kristianfisk under a Creative Commons license.

A vibrant and enterprising community of Tibetans lives in Ladakh, the easternmost area of the contested state of Jammu and Kashmir. Thousands of essentially stateless Tibetans have migrated westward to Ladakh since Chinese forces clamped down on Tibet in 1959. Although ethnic Tibetans in China have Chinese citizenship, the Tibetan exiles in India have residency permits but not Indian citizenship.

Tibetans arrived as refugees and remain refugees. The Tibetans feel at home in Ladakh, because of their common Buddhist faith and trading linkages. Even though many Tibetans were born in Ladakh, insurmountable statelessness pinches this Tibetan community.

Nawang Tso, a 47-year-old who has no imminent hope of returning to his ancestral land, said:

Neither we can get government job nor own land. I was born with this status and wonder how many generations of my family will have to live with this status.

Buddhist lamas in Ladakh, India. Photo: Luv Puri

For the last fifty years, Tibet has been governed by China. Tibetan refugees in Ladakh, like most other Tibetans, have rallied behind their spiritual leader. But the Dalai Lama does not demand complete secession from China. The present political stalemate between the Chinese government and the Tibetan leadership is over the territorial limits of the proposed Tibetan province, under Chinese sovereignty.

Tibetans want a Greater Tibet — the amalgamation of the Tibetan Autonomous Region with the whole of Qinghai province, western parts of Sichuan, areas of Yunnan and a part of Gansu. The Chinese government objects, emphasizing that ethnicity is no basis for border demarcation of Chinese provinces.

For the Tibetan refuges, Ladakh was a natural settlement area due to its culture, religion and landscape. Famous for its pristine beauty, Ladakh’s landscape has stark similarities with Utah’s Salt Lake City. Tibetan Buddhism influenced the culture of Ladakh and even vice-versa, as Buddhism spread to other parts of Asia through Ladakh. The centuries-old monasteries found in almost every village throughout Ladakh indicate this influence.

Similar to Tibetans, most Ladakhi homes have a small chapel containing various religious objects and sacred images. Other visible signs of the Buddhist faith are omnipresent prayer flags, stupas and mani walls.

Ladakhi cuisine shows the impact of the Tibetan community. This is true of restaurants thronged by foreign tourists and even of traditional Ladakhi homes. Gyal Wangchuk, a Ladakhi owner of the famous Siachen Hotel in the middle of Leh, Ladakh’s capital, said, “The majority of homes in the urban areas are no longer eating Ladakhi food, as now the new generation loves the Tibetan food. The famous Tibetan Momos can be found in every nook and corner of Ladakh.”

The Tibetan refugee community is staying in rented accommodations. The community’s employment prospects have been highly limited for the last five decades. In the middle of Leh, Ladakh’s capital, a Tibetan market has been established. The Tibetan community utilizes its contacts in Tibet to import black market Chinese-made goods to eastern Ladakh. Shoes, electronics, and pearls used to flood the main Tibetan markets, which are thronged by tourists during the summer. A pessimistic trader summarized the situation:

The times changed, as now the clandestine trade via eastern Ladakh became difficult. Most of the Chinese goods reaching here come through legal means, i.e. through the plains via Nepal. Profits have decreased. Uncertainty over our status will continue to affect us professionally, psychologically and physically.

- Luv Puri

The network, called Ghostnet, is based mainly in China. Among the computers it targeted were those of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and Tibet’s government-in-exile in India. Scholars say the operation may have helped identify people in Tibet who talk to exiled Tibetans, putting those in Tibet at risk of reprisals from the Chinese government, which controls Tibet.

The Canadian researchers said the spying activity they found was just the tip of the iceberg.

Keith Epstein, an investigative reporter in BusinessWeek’s Washington D.C. bureau who specializes in cyber security, joins Martin Savidge to discuss Chinese cyber spying, what information is at risk and defense systems.

Officials called the footage “lies,” adding that the government is not afraid of the Internet.

Watch the video in question below (warning: violence):

Worldfocus associate producer Hsin-Yin Lee translated comments from popular Chinese Web portal, “Sohu,” in which anonymous Chinese Internet users react to the YouTube block:

Commenter 1: I hope that YouTube could be back to normal very soon. It’s an important access for me to know different cultures. It helps me a lot on my job by downloading educational materials.

Commenter 2: Let’s get those trashy Western Web sites out of China! We have more than 10 popular video sharing Web sites and it will keep growing!

Commenter 3: Is the government really not afraid of the Internet? If not, why doesn’t it allow different voices to speak online? Monitoring is necessary, but over-monitoring will impair the freedom of speech.

Global Voices Advocacy suggests methods to get around the blockade.

Stan Schroeder of “Mashable” questions the effectiveness of such bans:

Normally, the video would probably be noticed by a handful of people interested in the matter; this way, everyone has seen it (or heard of it). one has to wonder how effective these bans are, since tools like Twitter make it incredibly easy for people to spread the news about incidents like this one. Proving that a video is fake would probably be a much better tactic than banning a site viewed by millions of people every day, and then claiming you’re not afraid of the Internet; it just doesn’t hold water.

A blogger at “Marketing Shift” writes that beyond free speech issues, the continued bans may end up hurting prospects for China’s smartphone market:

China’s receiving widespread criticism for its oppresion of free speech, but we should also consider the implications for tech corporations and developers.

Imagine yourself as the CEO of a Tech company who wants to tap into China’s expanding 3G market , but why bother wasting your [research and development] on a nation that may block user access to you for any reason, at any time? In my opinion, China’s erratic behavior could overshadow the potential market of 700 million new mobile users.

Read  more about Internet censorship around the globe: Blog censorship silences free speech around the world.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user keso under a Creative Commons license.

The Dalai Lama delivered a harsh speech about Chinese rule in Tibet. Tibetans around the world, along with supporters of Tibetan independence, held rallies on the anniversary.

“Having occupied Tibet, the Chinese communist government carried out a series of repressive and violent campaigns,” the Dalai Lama said. “These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth. The immediate result of these campaigns was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans.”

Orville Schell, the director of the Center on U.S.-China relations at the The Asia Society, speaks with Martin Savidge about the Dalai Lama’s comments and the future of the dispute between China and Tibet.

Blogger “SJWalker,” a new arrival in Dharamsala, India, describes the mood there:

Today there will be large crowds and marches, as it is either Uprising Day or Liberation Day, depending on whether you’re Tibetan (the former) or Chinese (the latter). Exactly 50 years ago was the Tibetan uprising and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama fled Tibet and came to settle here. In the bazaar yesterday there was a frenetic flurry of activity, and an underlying tone of dissatisfaction, maybe desperation. The situation in Tibet is as bad as ever, and there is very little hope on the horizon for improvement at this time.

In addition, it seems the transient community is ever-more separated from the long-term populations. So many people come here for a brief stint, to learn, to make money, to advocate, to fall in love, to have a respite from the rest of India, and this wears on the weave of the fabric of everyday life. I am one of these people, and I will do my best to tread lightly here, and to be of some benefit to the local communities.

Another blogger, “Greendarkness,” warns against violent protests like those of 2008:

What needs to happen is China needs to feel secure enough in its control to allow Tibetans greater autonomy. This is unlikely to happen if violence or even protests continue — we must be pragmatic. The Dalai Lama supports autonomy, we must push through that route, rather than continued agitation, which clearly only provokes China into becoming ever more defensive and oppressive in its rule of Tibet. This is what I mean by the ‘Free Tibet’ movement acting counterproductively. It succeeds in causing more hardship to Tibetans. A new approach must be found.

Frankly, pragmatically, the best you can do for Tibet is again try to convince the Chinese to consider autonomy. Which they won’t do if they perceive there is the possibility of losing Tibet entirely. So be careful with the way in which you use violent protests.

The “South Asia Daily” blog analyses the Dalai Lama’s statement and position going forward:

It is an unfortunate fact of life Tibet is no longer an issue the world has time for. The Dalai Lama himself has said his middle way approach, which eschews any form of aggression, has failed. Does that automatically mean his followers are now free to pursue other means? It does not mean that at all. He is merely acknowledging that his approach has not worked but refrains from advocating a more aggressive method.

The cancellation stems from Chinese anger about French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to meet next week with Tibet’s exiled leader, the Dalai Lama.

For its part, Tibet’s government-in-exile has been debating its approach to dealing with China and has agreed to stop sending representatives to negotiate with the Chinese.

Robert Barnett, a professor of modern Tibetan studies at Columbia University, joins Martin Savidge to discuss China’s attitude toward Tibetan autonomy, Tibetan support for the Dalai Lama and China’s public image. They also discuss the U.S. position on Tibet.

Tibetan monks study in Karnataka, India.

A group of exiled Tibetan leaders are partway through a week-long meeting in northern India that may chart a new course in Tibet’s struggle against decades of Chinese rule.

Years of failed attempts at conciliatory relations with China and recent statements by the Dalai Lama have left some Tibetans in search of a new, more aggressive strategy — including a possible declaration of independence that many youth support.

But this week’s meeting has highlighted a generational gap between Tibetans. The older generation prefers a more moderate approach.

A blogger at “Tibet.org” examines calls for new thinking on Tibet in the context of China’s changed motivations since the struggle began. The blogger argues that leaders must focus on Tibet’s economic assets rather than religious freedom or human rights.

Another blogger reposts analysis by a Tibetan Chinese person who expresses sadness at Tibetan riots and trumpets Chinese communism and its economic rewards.

Blogger “Mathieu Vernerey” writes extensively about differences and similarities between the “middle way” approach and those who call for Tibet’s complete independence, suggesting that both approaches can be reviewed and adapted.

The “Potala Times” Web site posts a letter from a Tibetan who believes the meeting in India will not see a full agreement, but who hopes Tibetans can retain their culture with or without autonomy and on a local level.

Watch events of the meeting in India here.

As the meeting commenced, China tighted controls on Tibet and a Chinese official stated that Tibetan separatism is “doomed.”

China has even taken the battle online, where the country has used Google ads to spread its own version of the conflict.

Tibet was essentially an independent country prior to invasion and occupation by China’s People’s Liberation Army in the 1950s.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user bluemoondream under a Creative Commons license.